Get more E-Lab content in your inbox! Sign up to our newsletter.
Bring your ideas to life
Imperial Enterprise Lab is the College’s dedicated entrepreneurship training centre for students and postdocs
We provide year-round extra-curricular programmes, masterclasses, and community events, combined with 1-to-1 advice from over 150 expert coaches and mentors, to help you explore new ideas and bring them to life.
Whether you want to tackle a pressing social or environmental challenge, develop new skills to help you in your career, launch the next global tech unicorn or just meet interesting new people – we’re here to help you.
We believe anyone can be an entrepreneur and will support any founder working on any idea – free of charge and with no expectation of equity in return.
All we ask from you is the courage to put your convictions to the test and the humility to learn.
What are you waiting for?
Get involved
How we
can help
Connect
Co-working Space
Community Collider Events
E-Lab Slack Channel
Idea Challenge
Global Challenge Lab
Explore
Idea Surgeries
How To Masterclasses
Validate
WE Innovate
Medtech SuperConnector (MTSC)
Venture Catalyst Challenge (VCC)
Summer Accelerator
Grow
WE Accelerate
Pitch Surgeries
Experts-in-Residence
Imperial Venture Mentoring Service
Get started
Book an idea surgery
An Idea Surgery is a business coaching session and the first step to accessing all of the great support services available via Enterprise Lab. Simply book a time to chat with a member of the team, and we’ll ask questions, give advice and point you in the right direction.
Visit the Lab
Looking for somewhere to get some work done, hold a meeting or have a quick catch-up with your fellow entrepreneurs? We’ve created the perfect co-working space at the South Kensington campus and it’s open to all Imperial students, Postdocs and alumni.
What’s On
Whether you’re looking for inspirational speakers, community events or want to see our teams take to the stage to pitch for prizes, we have the event for you. Check out all the events coming up below.
What’s on
Featured event
Community Collider
Join Imperial Enterprise Lab’s monthly community get together where students from different departments and faculties across the college can come together, collide, and form interesting new pairings and connections!
Make connections that count
Community Collider is our monthly social that brings together entrepreneurs from every corner of Imperial College London. It’s the place where great minds collide!
Make new friends, meet future collaborators and join the Enterprise Lab community in a friendly, relaxed and creative environment at Community Collider.
Hosted by your Community Support Coordinators, expect fun icebreakers and great conversation together with tasty refreshments. Everyone is welcome to attend, from undergrad to alumni. You don’t even need to have a business idea.
Brilliant brainwaves can come from chance encounters, so take the opportunity to boost your network and get inspired at our next gathering.
Have a question? Get in touch with the Community Team Enterprise.Lab@imperial.ac.uk
Watch Community Collider in action!
Find out what to expect from our Community Collider event with this video from undergraduate Biological Sciences student Chan, one of our attendees.
Leadership Team
Community & Operations
Programmes
Incubation Services
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Manager - Coaching & Mentoring Email: b.ogunleye@imperial.ac.uk
Bosede Ogunleye
What’s on
Upcoming events
Discover what’s on (online, of course!) at Imperial Enterprise Lab
Community Collider October
Event dateOctober 18, 2023
Join us for the first Community Collider of the 2023/2024 academic year! Sign up
Summer Accelerator 2023 Showcase
Event dateOctober 25, 2023
Come and see the Summer Accelerator 2023 Showcase as seven teams pitch their brand new innovations! Sign up
Our community
Meet our game changers
VUI Diagnostics
Hippocampus
The Shellworks
This year’s VCC winners have created a plastic alternative from seafood waste that breaks down in any natural environment, allowing consumers to throw away their waste worry-free.
Jelly Drops
hydroCotton
BIO-F Solutions
Read the latest
issue of D/srupt
The fifth issue of D/srupt has landed!
In this issue we speak to the new President of Imperial College London, Professor Hugh Brady, about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship. We meet the Imperial Founders that have made the Entrepreneurs’ Pledge to support the next generation, and we delve into the sustainability issues with fast fashion and meet the Imperial startups combatting the problem.
Our magazine
Our news
Latest news
From bioengineering to breaking down bias
Growing up, Riham Satti knew one thing was for sure – she wasn’t going to be an entrepreneur ... Read more
Our impact
2020/21
Businesses incorporated
Million pounds funding raised
Jobs created
Individual students engaged
Resources
Here are some resources to help you on your journey to build your startup. Whether you are early stages with an idea or have an incorporated business, there is something for everyone!Accelerator Programmes
Looking to take your idea to the next level, fast? Accelerators are a great way of getting seed investment as well as a programme of activity to keep you on track.
Creative Destruction Lab
Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a nonprofit organisation that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies.
Mathsworks
MathWorks Accelerator helps startups advance their development and ELab startups can get technical support and guidance from domain experts, plus free access to industry-proven software.
Techstars
Each year, Techstars choose over 500 early-stage companies to join one of our 3-month, mentorship-driven accelerators, investing $120K and providing hands-on mentorship and access to the Techstars network for life.
Y Combinator
Twice a year Y Combinator invest $500,000 per company in a large number of startups. They work intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors.
Tools
Useful tools to support your day-to-day activities and events and make you and your team work smarter, not harder.
Biorender
Pre-made icons and templates from more than 30 fields of life sciences. Great for making pitch decks and websites.
Bridge
Scale your company faster and avoid operational mistakes with Bridge. All you need to do is provide some basic information about their business, and answer a few questions. In return you’ll get a profile on how your company compares to other companies at a similar stage of fundraising. You’ll also get a prioritised action list to help you get ready for the next round of funding.
Google Forms
Create a survey, target respondents and generate statistically significant results in just days. Great for early stage customer discovery!
Google Analytics
Gives you the free tools you need to analyse data for your business in one place, so you can make smarter decisions
Food Packaging and Labelling
Get the low-down on the legal requirements that you have to follow as a food business.
Landscape
A one-stop shop for founder-friendly tools including investor lists, VC reviews (by founders) and partner discounts. The platform also encourages founders to showcase their venture to potential investors. You can also receive and offer help to other founders.
Mentimeter
Great tool for creating interactive presentations, interactive polls, quizzes and surveys available to all Imperial students staff and alumni. (NB alumni can get an alumni imperial email address to retain access)
Mural
Mural enables innovative teams to think and collaborate visually to solve problems. A great tool for collaborating with your team, especially when working remotely!
Odin
A free resource for founders to discover and contact investors anywhere.
Strategyzer
Silicon Valley originals, Alexander Osterwalder and David J. Bland have built this platform to help entrepreneurs build their company. With masterclasses, books and canvases to get you started.
The Business Model Canvas
Globally recognised software to design business models.
Value Proposition Canvas
A great tool to help you understand your customers
Keynotes
Introduction to UN SDG’s swith Prof. Michael Templeton
What is UN Sustainable Development Goal #3 Good Health and Well-being and why is this particular goal important? Imperial College London’s Professor Michael Templeton explores the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing.
Introduction to Global Challenge Lab 2021 Tracks
Join Dr Nazneen Rahman, Founder of YewMaker as we discuss the four tracks on the Global Challenge Lab 2021.
Get in touch
Contact us
Address
Imperial College London
Level 0, Sherfield Building
(Access next to Great Hall)
South Kensington Campus
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2AZ
Opening hours
We are open Monday – Friday. Please visit our Co-Working Space page for our current opening hours
Newsletter
Be the first to know!
To get all the info on our upcoming events, programmes and news, sign up to our mailing list!
We promise to only use your data for good things. Read our privacy policy to find out more.
Grand Final
Closing Ceremony & Demo Day
Hear from the top eight global teams as they pitch to win a share of the £20,000 prize fund.
We will also host a fireside chat between Anne-Marie Tomchak and Fred Hassan, where we will explore Fred’s exceptional career, his thoughts on the healthcare industry and his advice on leadership.
Global Challenge Lab
Join students from across the world to form international teams and generate solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges and work towards the UN Sustainable Development Skills. Learn new skills, meet new people and win a share of the prize fund.
This year the Challenge will focus on goal number seven: Affordable and Clean Energy.
Supported by:
Our partners:
Designed to boost the opportunities available to women in entrepreneurship, over the past 9 years, Imperial’s WE Innovate programme has provided a wide range of opportunities to women interested in entrepreneurship, from developing business ideas and entrepreneurship skills to raising investment and networking.
This year, the WE Innovate programme will culminate our live final, providing an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant achievements and progress of women entrepreneurs at Imperial College London. In our final event, our £33K prize fund, sponsored by bp, will be awarded by a panel of world-class entrepreneurial, academic and industry experts.
To our audience in the room, welcome! It’s great to have you with us. Anyone unable to join us this evening will be able to access the recording of the event at the link below from the 23 June 2023.
Message from Professor Maggie Dallman
Vice-President (International) & Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships),
Imperial College London
It is an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the WE Innovate Final 2023. I am honoured to be supporting the programme once again this year and very much looking forward to learning more about the ideas that the teams have come up with over the past 6 months and welcoming you to the Final and networking event this June, where the 5 finalists will pitch to the judges, and all the teams can showcase their ventures.
Supporting women’s entrepreneurship at Imperial not only helps our women students, graduates and alumni achieve their potential, but also promotes the significant contributions which women make to our society. Nowhere is this more important than in STEM fields, where young women are still woefully underrepresented. At Imperial, we are also fortunate to attract students from a wide range of backgrounds and it is incredibly encouraging to see this diversity reflected in this year’s WE Innovate cohort.
I would like to extend special thanks to bp, for supporting the programme again this year and for their sponsorship of the prize fund. This fund will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the businesses who receive it.
I would also like to thank the industry experts and WE Innovate alumni who have peer mentored and shared both their time and expertise. Their insights have been an invaluable source of wisdom for our participants, and they are certainly one of the features which makes WE Innovate truly unique.
Finally, I would like to thank the Enterprise Lab team for putting together and facilitating the programme. Without them, the programme could not have run so successfully over the past 9 years.
Meet the Judges
Alexsis de Raadt St James
Managing Partner, Merian Ventures
Founder and Managing Partner of Merian Ventures, a US/UK venture capital firm focused on female founded and co–founded deep tech companies in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain and Consumer–facing technologies. Alexsis began her career in the finance, energy and technology sectors, where she held senior executive roles in M&A, venture, corporate finance and product strategy at Shell International and more recently, Merian Ventures.
She is a frequent speaker and author on digital business, venture and the role of women in technology. Alexsis is a Fulbright Commissioner, Advisory Board member at the Oxford Internet Institute, The Foundry at Oxford, Founder of WE Innovate STEM Accelerator Imperial College London and a Board member and Advisor to companies she’s funded or founded. She has an MS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MBA from Erasmus University.
Ladi Greenstreet
UKI Lead, Accenture Ventures, Open Innovation and Chief Executive Officer, Diversity VC
Ladi operates at the intersection between technology, business and innovation is determined to find the best solutions to the world’s most challenging problems. He is the lead for Accenture Ventures UKI where is specialises in investing in growth-stage companies and guiding large companies through digital transformation.
He is also the CEO for Diversity.VC, a non-profit on a mission to create a Venture Capital industry where one’s identity is no longer a barrier to making or receiving investments. As a bridge between an extensive network of enterprise, entrepreneurs and investors, he is uniquely placed to lead impactful change.
Vjera Magdalenic-Moussavi
Director of Industry Partnerships & Commercialisation FoM, Imperial
Director of Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation for the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, leading the Faculty’s Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation (IPC) team in maximising the impact of Imperial’s research discoveries by stimulating, identifying and progressing opportunities to develop research and technologies through collaboration and commercialisation.
Responsible for the strategy, organisation and operations of the IPC – Medicine team, seeking to grow engagement with industry , research translation and commercialisation activities, guiding the protection, development and commercialisation of Imperial’s discoveries which have a transformative impact on society.
Sponsor
We are seeking sponsors to support our groundbreaking programmes to develop Imperial students’ entrepreneurial ambitions.
Our game changers
Teams
Here are some of the teams previous funders have supported.
NutriAdmin
NutriAdmin is a specialist all-in-one software platform that enables nutrition professionals to streamline their business operations and enhance customer service by automating routine tasks. Find out more
Team Repair
A sustainable subscription service that teaches children science and technology by sending them electronic gadgets with carefully planned faults to fix, guided by our app. Find out more
Orbio Earth
Leveraging the power of satellite data and data fusion algorithms to provide trustworthy and actionable methane intelligence for emission reductions and benchmarking efforts. Find out more
Virtue
Making a social impact by providing both transparency and accessibility for all retailers. Find out more
TwinnHealth
An AI cloud-based platform designed to analyse MRI images and detect metabolic disease. Find out more
MagDrive
An electrical propulsion system that is more than 10 times as powerful as any other electrical system, without compromising its efficiency. Find out more
Nanomox
Helping small make it big: enabling nanomaterial production to be cheaper, sustainable and high quality. Find out more
DotPlot
Enabling early breast cancer detection through an at-home device and app for easy and accessible breast health monitoring. Find out more
Deploy Tech
Deploy has developed the world’s first of a kind air-deployed, ready-to-use concrete water tank. Find out more
The latest
News
From bioengineering to breaking down bias
Growing up, Riham Satti knew one thing was for sure – she wasn’t going to be an entrepreneur ... Read more
Cherrie Hui: Why attend the How To Talks
Hi! I am Cherrie Hui from the MSc Strategic Marketing (online) programme. Like some of my peers, I joined Imperial College London because I wanted the world-class training and resources to have my own business one day. The How To Talks are the perfect way to get inspired to start something new! Read more
Mental Health Awareness Week: Startup your mental wellbeing
Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to look after your mental wellbeing for the long haul. Read more
ApTap partner with TSB to reach five million customers
TSB’s research found that 40% of Brits would be more likely to switch energy providers if they knew that it would take less than 10 minutes to make the change. Using the new ApTap feature takes on average around five minutes to make the switch, dispelling the common myth that it’s tricky and time consuming to change suppliers. Read more
Imperial changemakers named in community of Europe’s best young innovators
Scores of student innovators, alumni and researchers from Imperial have been named in this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 lists. Read more
GyroGear secured £3.1M seed funding for development of its wearable device GyroGlove
GyroGear, founded by Dr Faii Ong, received $4.3M (equivalent to £3.1M) in phase one of its seed funding round led by Foxconn Technology Group Read more
Co-founder of Happyr Health wins Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK and KTN
Nicola Filzmoser, co-founder of Happyr Health, won the Women in Innovation Award 2021 from Innovate UK and KTN. Read more
‘Intelligent’ mattress topper wins Imperial’s biggest startup competition
A team of Imperial students is developing an innovative mattress topper to predict and prevent pressure ulcers before they develop. Read more
Meet the five student startups that could change the world
Five Imperial student startups will battle it out in the final of the College’s biggest entrepreneurial competition, the Venture Catalyst Challenge. Read more
Put women at the heart of a post-pandemic tech boom
Women shouldn’t be left out of the tech boom needed for post-pandemic recovery, argue Alice Gast and Alexsis de Raadt St James. Read more
The founder formula
D/srupt spoke to Alice Bentinck, Co-Founder of Entrepreneur First, about finding people with ‘the edge’, striving for diversity in tech and why founder break-ups aren’t necessarily a bad thing ... Read more
Imperial Investment Fund backs Charco Neurotech
The Imperial College Investment Fund has made its first investment into a startup developing a non-invasive device to help manage Parkinson's symptoms Read more
Finding “weak signals” from the future
Opportunity is all around, if you know where to look. But have you ever turned your gaze to signals from the future? Read more
RESOLV is recognised by the Legal Tech Breakthrough Award
The team have also received £100K funding from Innovate UK. Read more
VUI Diagnostics join the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator 2020-2021
Bringing their retinal imaging technology to NHS and improving lives of patients with avoidable blindness Read more
Co-founder of Treeconomy was selected to join the Founders of the Future Fellowship
By combating climate change issues with innovative technology Read more
